Cracks are seen in outdoor squares and the bases of buildings in Baoan district, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

Some houses and roads have begun to sink in Shenzhen's reclamation area recently, and cracks are seen in outdoor squares and the bases of buildings.

"It is getting worse," complained a pharmacy owner in Baoan district, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. "I noticed a crack last year, and the property manager got it fixed with cement. But it didn't last long," she said. The doorway sank about a fist deep.

Parts of Tea Town of Western Bank, a residential community on Baoan Boulevard in Baoan District, have sunk as deep as 12 centimeters, and the glazed tiles on the lower part of walls are also cracked.

Local residents said the sidewalks are now tilted up like slopes, and the cracks in the ground keep getting wider.

"It looks just like those scenes in disaster movies," said Xu Yan, a Shenzhen resident.

"Downtown Baoan District is located in an area of reclaimed land used to be filled with garbage about 10 years ago. Many of the houses were built in a short period of time. It doesn't surprise me that the buildings are sinking," a resident surnamed Fan commented.

In other countries, reclamation zones can be used for house construction 30 years after the surface has consolidated and is able to withstand seawater erosion. As property prices began skyrocketing in Shenzhen, property developers began building homes on the unstable ground.

Downtown Baoan, included in the "Pan-Frontier" area in Shenzhen, is singled out as part of the pilot zone for the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Service Modernization zone to develop the agricultural, industrial and service sectors. People flocked to the district to purchase luxury houses at the high price of 42,000 yuan ($6,154) per square meter despite the ground not yet stabilized. A 200 square-meter villa was sold at an average price of 28 million yuan ($4.1 million).

But the high prices couldn't prevent the houses from sinking. As the surface continues to sink, the ground becomes more uneven, and results in structural damage in the residential buildings.

However, an official from the Baoan planning management office said the foundations of the houses in reclamation zone were steady enough to support the main structures from sinking. The construction bureau is currently investigating the cause of the sinking and evaluating the safety of the buildings.